An intense struggle is occurring behind the scenes between Iran and Saudi Arabia for dominance in the Persian Gulf region, in particular, and in the Islamic world, in general. Lately, Iran has been on the march, but Saudi Arabia has begun to push back…hard. For background, Iran is Persian and leads the Shiite Moslems. Saudi Arabia is Arab and leads the Sunni Moslems. Americans tend to think that “all Moslems are the same,” but that is not true. There is a deep rivalry between the Sunni and Shiite Moslem camps.
After being hit hard by the Stuxnet worm which attacked its nuclear facility computers, Iran has been stirring up trouble wherever it can in the Sunni Moslem nations. Iran won the first round when pro-Iranian Hezbollah forces effectively took over the government of Lebanon. Syria is already Iran’s vassal. Iran won again when its Moslem Brotherhood agitators in Egypt drove Egypt’s pro-western and pro-Saudi leader, Hosni Mubarak, out of office. However, the Egyptian military essentially staged a silent coup and indefinitely took over the reins of Egypt’s government. This stymied Iran’s efforts to install a radical Islamic government in Egypt and seize effective control of the Suez Canal. Tunisia’s Sunni government fell, and Libya is currently in a state of civil war between pro-Qaddafy and anti-Qaddafy rebels. Other Sunni governments are fighting to stay in office in Yemen, Oman, Jordan and other nations. Ostensibly, demonstrators and rebels in these nations are fighting for “democracy” and better living conditions. No doubt, that is the true motive of many protestors. However, I believe Iran is skillfully using them to forward its own Shiite agenda.
Bahrain is a small nation in the Persian Gulf, but it has great strategic significance. It has a Sunni government, but many of its people are Shiite. It is also the base for US naval ships in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain’s Shiite population is now trying to overthrow the Sunni government. If this action succeeded, it would give Iran a friendly ally on the Saudi side of the Persian Gulf and a new Shiite, Iran-friendly government would likely boot the US Navy out of its base in Bahrain. Without a base in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy would be in a difficult position to project power into the region, and this would strengthen Iran’s military position against the Saudis. Therefore, I fully believe that Iran is orchestrating this Shiite uprising in Bahrain. Realizing this same thing, Saudi Arabia has just pushed back hard against Iran’s efforts. The Saudis sent 1,000 Saudi troops into Bahrain to reinforce and protect the Sunni government of Bahrain. The Saudis clearly see the dangers posed by an overthrow of the Sunni government of Bahrain, and have moved in their military forces to prevent the establishment of a pro-Iranian government in Bahrain. If the US government grasps what is going on in the Moslem world’s current internal struggles, it will support the Saudi action.
Ezekiel 38 lists the nations which will join Russia and China in the prophesied Gog-Magog alliance which will attack the western world (called “Israel” in Ezekiel 38-39 as my books, articles and audio messages make clear) in the latter days. Iran (“Persia”) is clearly mentioned in the list of the Gog-Magog nations, and it is already solidly in the Gog-Magog camp. However, Ezekiel 38 does not mention “Ishmael” or “Egypt” in the list of the Gog-Magog allies, inferring that these nations will not be part of the Gog-Magog alliance. The modern Ishmaelites are the Arab Sunni nations which Iran is trying to destabilize. Ezekiel 38’s inference is that Iran will fail to move the Sunni Arab nations or Egypt into the Gog-Magog camp. However, my post on March 12th indicates that Ezekiel 38 prophesies that Libya and perhaps other nearby North African nations will fall into the Gog-Magog camp regardless of who rules Libya after the current civil war. The outcome is not yet clear, but latest events indicate the pro-Qaddafy forces are winning. If Qaddafy stays in power, he will be very angry at the USA, France and other western nations which openly rooted for his ouster, and he will be grateful to Russia and China who are poised to veto any UN actions vs. Qaddafy. This is likely to move Qaddafy away from the West and into the Gog-Magog alliance.
The second link below is a Stratfor analysis of this Iranian-Saudi struggle which is well worth reading although its perspective is entirely secular and involves no biblical perspectives. Stratfor feels the overt Saudi military move into Bahrain surprised the Iranians, and it opines the next Iranian move will be to undermine the current government of Iraq and take action against the Americans in Afghanistan. The outcome of any Iranian effort to destabilize Iraq’s current regime is unclear from a biblical perspective, but previous posts at this site have indicated that both Afghanistan and Pakistan are highly likely to end up in the Gog-Magog alliance as “Cush” (“Ethiopia” in the King James Version of the Bible) is prophesied in Ezekiel 38:5 to be in the Gog-Magog corner (the name of “Cush” is today still on the nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan as the Hindu Kush Mountains straddle these nations). My February 21st post was the most recent one to comment on this likelihood.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-14-bahrain_N.htm
